Something catchy about bed bugs.
A spectre is haunting Ottawa – bed bugs. While their victims are often reticent to talk about them, there is a growing awareness that the blood-sucking pests are turning up in residents’ bedrooms in numbers not seen since the end of the Second World War.
David Saunders, owner of Paramount Pest Control, says the over the last two years there has been an exponential increase of bed bug infestations, something he rarely dealt with five years ago.
“It’s Ottawa’s dirty little secret, I’d say one-third of Ottawa residents have either had bed bugs or know someone who has, it’s not something people like to talk about,” says Saunders, who’s been in the pest control business for 21 years.
Saunders says that before this year most of his calls came from rooming houses and apartment buildings, but now says cases are spread evenly through the city from luxury hotels to suburban homes.
In Centretown, where more than 90 per cent of residents live in multi-unit dwellings, Saunders says there are extra challenges in dealing with bed bugs.
“The challenge for residents in apartments is that there are people moving virtually every month, dragging mattresses down the halls, coming and going, and if one of their bed bugs fall off and crawl under your door there’s very little you can do to avoid them,” says Saunders
Once an apartment is infested, Saunders says the only way to effectively get rid of bed bugs is to hire a professional with significant experience. Who foots the $600 to $1,500 bill depends on whether the bedbugs are in the apartment before the tenant moves in or if the tenant brings them to the apartment.
If someone notices within the first seven days of moving into a building that they are developing red marks in a linear pattern they should alert their landlord immediately, says Saunders. Following an inspection it is easy to see if the tenant brought the bugs with them or if they came from the apartment by looking at the mattress.
If the mattress has black stains along the seams — bed bugs fecal matter — then Saunders says the bugs probably came with the tenant, if the mattress is stain free but the tenant exhibits bites than paying for a treatment is the landlord’s responsibility.
According to the international bed bug registry, a web site where people can report bed bug cases, Centretown rooming houses are especially plagued by chronic bed bug problems.
The registry reveals scores of rooming houses in Centretown with multiple complaints over the last several years.
One rooming house on Maclaren Street has four complaints against it over the last year-and-a-half.
One look at the registry’s map shows Centretown pocked by red dots indicating an infestation.
Despite the massive spread of bed bugs in Ottawa, the city has basically no mechanism to deal with the problem.
Ottawa Public Health can only get involved if there is a dispute between a tenant or a landlord about who is responsible for a clean-up.
A spokesperson for Public Health, Jean-Guy Albert, says that these kinds of disputes haven’t increased accordingly with the increase in bed bugs in the city and have remained consistent at around 70 cases over the last four years.
Other than dispute resolution, Public Health provides information on how to deal with bed bugs on their web site.
Other North American cities have taken a more proactive approach.
In Boston, a bed bug sighting warrants a visit from the city's inspection services department, which documents the problem. The property manager or owner then has to file a pest management plan for dealing with the problem and inspectors follow up until the case is closed.
Owners also must "treat all horizontally and vertically adjacent units," according to the inspectional services department, and those disposing of infested mattresses, clothing, or other belongings must use bright orange stickers to identify them as infested.
In San Francisco, failing to comply with their bed bug regulations may lead to a $1,000 fine or five days in jail.
Before the 1950s, bed bugs were a common pest; however, following the widespread use of DDT and other pesticides, now considered toxic, the problem was virtually eradicated.
Another factor that encourages the spread is the high levels of travel in today’s society.
Saunders says that he doesn’t see the problem going away and that it will likely get worse.
“In the next 10 years, bed bugs are going to be a way of life. Ottawa better get used to the fact that we need to educate ourselves about bed bugs and prepare ourselves to deal with them.”